Modern medicine also reveals how olive oil is a basic food for human health. Olive oil is, in fact, far beyond being a pure fruit juice. It is now well known that the Mediterranean diet focusing on vegetables and fruits, legumes, whole-meal cereal grains other than the meat has a positive effect on the long and healthy life.

It has been proven by many researches that olive oil, one of the important elements of the Mediterranean diet, which has served as a model for a balanced and healthy diet, played an important role especially in obstructing cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The consensus reached by the scientists and experts from all over the world, attending the London 2000 International Mediterranean Diet Conference with regard to the fact that olive oil should first be preferred in a heart-healthy diet, demonstrates the value of the "golden liquid" for human beings once again.

As with all the vegetable oils, it is clear that olive oil feeding is both easier to digest and healthier than feeding with saturated fats (SFA). Because it is well known that animal-saturated fats increase the level of cholesterol in the blood, and that the vegetable oils obtained from plant seeds are unsaturated fats (UFA) more favorable to human health.

Moreover, olive oil has a very special position among all the vegetable oils "cholesterol-free" that are considered as healthier by experts: Pure olive oil, like any fruit juice, can be consumed immediately after it is pressed. However, no vegetable oil other than the olive oil can be consumed immediately after it is pressed, and it should be subject to a chemical refining process in order to become edible.

Pure olive oil, obtained only by physical processing, also carries less polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) than other vegetable oils. In contrast, due to its oleic acid contents, it carries 70% more monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) than vegetable oils. In Mediterranean countries where olive oil is heavily consumed, this 'magic liquid' maintains good cholesterol level, thanks to its content of poly- and especially mono-unsaturated oleic acid. It is also clear that olive oil plays a preventive role against vascular stiffness and hypertension by means of the positive effect on lipoproteins which decrease excessive cholesterol.